Santorini. How could it possibly match the glowing reviews and beautiful pictures. I wasn't convinced until I saw the island and the villages clinging to the edge of the caldera. A word about the sea. It is sapphire blue, truly. I have never seen water this color anywhere. In pre-historic times the island blew itself up, literally, with a volcanic explosion 100 times the force of Krakatoa. What was once a round island made up of five volcanos became a crescent shaped island with smaller islands around, remnants of the volcano. Villages were later built on the rim of the caldera, a position safe from pirates that were a constant threat. Today, these villages continue although they are really modern replacements for the ones destroyed by earthquakes and more recent eruptions. The vast majority of the
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